When i'm not even sure if we're talking about the same game, it's not normal

2nd hardest option doesn't give basic weaponry ? I thought Permadeath was the only one where you start without anything ?
And if you complain about this, this simply means that the difficulty you chose was MUCH MUCH MUCH higher than anything a noob can handle on the game.
"Seems like you can't walk 10 yards without having to excrete foreign objects or have your orifice sag down to the floor."
Like, how are we talking about the same game here wtf ? Do you have a secret update we don't have

, your experience playing this game is.... interesting. Did you not find it strange that the game that prides itself on the gunplay didn't give you guns ?
If you don't start with a gun and can't build one, the simplest thing to do is to take a hoverbike and run someone over with it for a starting weapon. That is a tip you should NOT need as a noob, no new player should start the game without weapon, don't just choose random difficulties without reading. Especially on a game designed to be hard because it's tarkov like in the gameplay.
I actually don't know either how you keep dying of thirst and food as i didn't even know you could actually die from them

But i'll assume that not having a weapon means your loot was very limited since you couldn't kill and thus starvation.
90% of your problems with this game is that you didn't have a weapon to begin with, so maybe idk.... Pick a difficulty appropriate to your beginning level ? The game is designed to be hard but you handicapped yourself for no reason.